Imperatives of Culture: Selected Essays on Korean History, Literature, and Society from the Japanese Colonial Era ed. by Christopher P. Hanscom (review)

Imperatives of Culture is a great collection of twelve selected essays by colonial Korean intellectuals of the left and right, such as the “cultural gradualist” Yi Kwangsu (Chapter 1) and the Marxist Sin Paegu (Chapter 2). This book also touches on various themes, such as women’s issues (Chapter 3, on Mun Ilp’yŏng), diaspora in Manchuria (Chapter 7, on Kang Kyŏngae), modernism and “fragmentary notions” in the poetry of Kim Kirim (Chapter 8), and the so-called “literature of self-indictment” (kobal munhak, Chapter 10, on Kim Namch’ŏn). Judging from the great endeavors that the participating scholars made in each translation, the many tribulations this work underwent on the road to publication (as the Foreword implies) have been vindicated by the end result.

Each chapter begins with an insightful commentary that effectively unfolds the complex colonial intellectual world in a novel, interdisciplinary way. The commentary section contains each intellectual’s biography, works and contributions. The commentators were responsible for selecting the texts and making the commentaries and translations, which help readers to better comprehend these intellectuals and their selected works. Within the translated texts, relevant commentary is added depending on the situation and at the commentator’s discretion. For instance, in order to reduce a lengthy text and better convey its meaning, in Chapter 5 Seung-ah Lee omits several parts of the original and replaces them with summaries (pp. 91–97).

As the title implies, throughout the book culture plays a crucial role in challenging the nation-state paradigm of colonial Korea, but the authors also attempt to position this culture within the global context (xii). Instead of attempting to define “culture” directly, this book attempts to show colonial Korea through the eyes of the twelve colonial intellectuals and to clarify their ideals about the nation-state, national spirit, people, and history.

This book gives a new meaning to the 1930s, suggesting that it laid the foundations for the ideological schisms of the post-liberation era. To do so, language took on multiple, crucial roles in deepening the rifts. By comparing the two post-colonial intellectual essays—regarding the role of national literature (Kim Tongni, Chapter 11) and new nationalism (Son Chint’ae, Chapter 12)—with the essays from the colonial period, readers can get a sense of how colonial intellectuals sketched out a framework for nation-building.

To show ideological diversity, this book dedicates a considerable amount of space to the works of Marxist and socialists groups, including the writings of Marxists Sin Paegu (Chapter 2) and Paek Namun (Chapter 6), and the socialists Kang Kyŏngae (Chapter 7), Kim Kirim (Chapter 8) and Kim Namch’ŏn (Chapter 10). To those less familiar with colonial Korean literature, this book provides a good overview of socialist and Marxist intellectuals during the colonial period. I believe it is rare to find books that collect such diverse works by different ideological groups, so this book can serve as a good reference for those interested in colonial literature and history.

That colonial Korea was connected to the global context can be seen in the diverse worldviews of the authors. Yi Kwangsu was influenced by mass psychology through the French psychologist Gustave Le Bon (p. 12). Sin advocated the “serious passionate socialist” movement (p. 39) and Paek understood mid-1930s Korea as a “semi-feudal” society riven by the “dual conflicts” of class and national struggle (p. 106–107). Likewise, each intellectual explored the uniqueness in “Korean-ness.” The lack of similarities or agreement among the twelve authors may confuse some readers, but this may be intended, because “culture is a concept that reveals the complexity of both imperial and national identities and the political projects that undergirded them [these collected essays]” (xi).

However, the density of this book may act as both a strength...